I have created a statement report, but it’s a little bland, especially when there are only a few lines of data to show:

First step is to copy the watermark image to the Page Header section. On my report I was not using the page header, so I could put the watermark there. If your report is already using the page header, you can add an additional page header by right clicking on the Page Header section and choosing Insert Section Below:

Once you insert the watermark image you may need to re-size it or reposition it lower so that it is does not show up at the top (unless that is what you want).

Now go to Report > Section Expert, click on the Page Header (if you created a new section, it will be Page Header b) under Sections and check Underlay Following Sections on the Common tab:

Click OK and go to your report Preview. I had to go back and move my watermark down some more, but here is the end result:

26 Responses to “Adding watermarks to Crystal Reports”

This works great until you use lines in your report. In any section of it.
The lines are hidden by the picture (hidden behind it).
Is there any way to make the picture stay in the background of the lines?

You can right click on the watermark graphic, choose Format Graphic, on the Common tab click on the formula button next to Suppress and enter the condition that you want to hide the watermark for. Most fields and even sections in Crystal Reports has this Suppress based on a formula option, it’s really useful.

Sorry, this is not something I have run into before. Perhaps it is the size of the image or something specific to it. If you can test with a small, different image, that might give you an idea of whether it’s the image itself causing the problem or something else going on. I would recommend posting your question on a Crystal Reports forum to see if you can get some more people to chime in on this.

Great…this is what i’m looking for, you solve my problem, well, i’m not looking for watermark instead, i’m looking for how to give a long text in right side of the report accross each record, well, i can do it now with your solution, thanks,

Watermark lays on top of section lines – Some reports only need lines between sections. If you have a simple report with one detail section tell the summary section to print at the bottom. This will fix this problem for some of you.

I would like to know how to tell the watermark to suppress on print. Any one know how to do that?

Hi, Victoria! I would like to know how and where to define the parameter that you’re suggesting to suppress the watermark. I just need the watermark not to appear on some pages of my report. Also, I am trying to send the watermark at the back of the report but I can’t hardly do it. It still stays on top of the report blocking some boxes and lines. Would appreciate if you could help me to it. Thanks!

To suppress the watermark based on a formula, go to the Section Expert, select the section where you have placed the watermark, click on the formula button next to Suppress and add your condition there. For example, if you only want the watermark to appear only on the last page, enter the following formula: PageNumber < TotalPageCount
For it to show only on the first page use: PageNumber > 1

Thank you so much for the fix. I’ve been searching the interent for a solution, and found many people are having this same problem (since 2005). Your post was the first solution I found and it works GREAT!!!

I don’t think you’re doing anything wrong, I am seeing the same behavior. Text will go over the watermark, but lines will not. I don’t see any way to change this. there needs to be some kind of ‘opacity’ setting, like there is in Acrobat, but I don’t see such a setting in Crystal. At least in Crystal XI. I am waiting for delivery of Crystal 2008 and if I see that there is a setting in there for this, I will let you know.

In the meantime, you may want to put the watermark in some other location, where it will not cross over lines. 😦

Heard your problem and thought I might shed some light on one fix that I have found. I do not have a screenshot to show you, but if you simply replace your lines with empty text boxes that have a bottom border you can replicate the line and the textboxes are not overlapped by the image like a plain line is.

If I use a transparent png image as watermark the background of the image renders in black.

I need to make a watermark for draft documents that has the word “DRAFT” crossing the document from bottom left to top right. I’m using right now an OLE Object from MS Word (WordArt) but it renders blurry.

Do you have any advise of how to acomplish this?
Thanks a lot for the examples, they are really useful for us who are noobs to Crystal!

I wish I had some advice for you on the images, but I have had issues with those myself as well. For the one I used in my example, I went to the person that works on our web design and all our images, brochures, etc. and asked them for an image to use. Although looking at what I got from her, it’s on a white background, not transparent, perhaps that’s the issue with your png image?